World Press Photo vs. White House Photographers Next month, World Press Photo will announce the winner of the Photo of the Year title. It will also be the opportunity for the Dutch organization to bring to Amsterdam some of the best photojournalists in the world. Among the guests this year: Pete Souza, President Barack Obama's official White House photographer. As he continues to tour the world to promote his photobook, Souza will take the stage at the premiere photojournalism event to talk about his work. There's a lot we can learn from Souza's work — from the history-making nature of Obama's presidency to Sousa's ability to establish a deeply personal relationship with the most powerful world leader — but the question remains: Is World Press Photo, an organization that advocates for a free press, the right avenue for Souza's images? For years, the photographer's unprecedented access to Obama has been debated among press photographers, who found their own access to the president severely curtailed by his administration. Santiago Lyon, the former director of photography at Associated Press who led the charge, unsuccessfully, for more transparency during Obama's two terms in office, decried World Press Photo's decision to invite the photographer. "I really question the wisdom of having this person come and present his work," Lyon tells In Sight. In justifying its decision, a spokesman for World Press Photo says the organization encourages diverse accounts of the world. "We educate the profession and the public on the making of these stories and encourage debate on their meaning," the statement reads. "And we want to show and understand the realities of the media today." While World Press Photo says it will properly contextualize Souza's images, it has refused to organize a debate on the impact of his work on press freedom. For Lars Boering, the Dutch foundation's director, that debate belongs in Washington, not Amsterdam. "This is an issue that affect us all," counters Lyon. "It's important in this era of fake news where politicians are undermining the credibility of the press." Beyond the issue of fake news, we have to consider what Souza's images are. The word propaganda is often associated with the Soviet Union, but it applies to all forms of official communication — from presidents to corporations and, yes, reality stars. While I understand World Press Photo's desire to hear from one of the most important photographers of the Obama era (I had the opportunity in the past to talk to Souza about his work, and I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation), we can't pretend that his work — and that of any other official White House photographers — isn't propagandist in nature. That's not to say that his contribution and that of his predecessors — from Yoichi Okamoto (LBJ) to David Hume Kennerly (Gerald Ford) and Eric Draper (George W. Bush) — aren't important. These men have photographed history and their images will serve as a record — a one-sided record, naturally — of their respective presidents. But we also can't forget that some of the most famous photographs of presidents were shot by press photographers. The New York Times' George Tames gave us the iconic image of John F. Kennedy resting at his desk in the Oval Office, while Aaron Stanley Tretick of Look magazine captured the one-of-its-kind photograph of JFK Jr. playing under his father's Resolute desk. It was Ron Edmonds of Associated Press who received the Pulitzer Prize for his documentation of the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. It was Dirck Halstead, on assignment for Time, who photographed Monica Lewinsky's embrace of Bill Clinton at a fundraising event in October 1996. And the shot of a defiant George W. Bush, flanked by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, was the work of Christopher Morris, also on assignment for Time. These photographers needed the access to shoot these iconic images. That access disappeared during Obama's time in office. I'm hard-pressed to find an iconic image of the country's first African American president that wasn't the work of Pete Souza, and that's just disappointing. By celebrating Pete Souza's work without addressing the dangerous consequences that come with the associated loss of access, World Press Photo is missing an opportunity to stand on the side of press photographers — the bread and butter of its annual contest. -- Olivier Laurent | 
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